Introduction to Population Analytics for Sustainable Development

Population analytics is the study of human populations and is widely utilized in social sciences to understand the challenges of the present as they evolved from the past and as they predict and plan for future needs. An understanding of population dynamics is essential knowledge for development practitioners. For many decades, rapid expansion of national and global population heightened fears that the trends would outstrip food production and result in recurring famines. While hunger is still a specter haunting the poorest nations, fertility rates in almost every country, even low- and middle-income ones, are falling rapidly. Nearly all rich nations' birth rates have fallen far below replacement level prompting significant new incentives for larger families. Even China, which had enforced a draconian one-child policy, is now encouraging and attempting to enforce larger families to sustain the size of its workforce and contribute to the nation's rising standard of living. Our course is multidisciplinary, bringing together perspectives and evidence from demography, medical research, human geography, and political economy. The course introduces basic concepts in population science and analyzes the trends and dynamics that affect the well-being of individuals, families, and nations. We utilize data to document the state of poverty and inequality, maternal and child health, aging, fertility, epidemiological transitions, migration, and immigration among other considerations. We go behind the data to explore the social realities that determine the health and well-being of people. We consider the demographic challenges faced by racial and ethnic minorities and the historic costs of policy neglect on today's families. We consider demographic indicators within nations and among advanced economies (such as the US, Japan, and Germany) and low- and middle-income countries (such as India, China, and South Africa). We explore the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest areas of the US, where the legacies of enslavement are still seen in such indicators as educational attainment, household income, and prevalence of disease—as well as in neighborhood parks, potable water, and access to nutritious food. The course is taught from a perspective of development ethics helping us to see the humanity behind data analysis.